Finding a New Spring

Finding a New Spring

Once upon a time a certain tradesman was leading a caravan to another country to sell his goods. Along the way they came to the edge of a severe hot-sand desert. They asked about, and found that during the daytime the sun heats up the fine sand until it's as hot as charcoal, so no one can walk on it - not even bullocks or camels! So the caravan leader hired a desert guide, one who could follow the stars, so they could travel only at night when the sand cools down. They began the dangerous night-time journey across the desert.

A couple nights later, after eating their evening meal, and waiting for the sand to cool, they started out again. Later that night the desert guide, who was driving the first cart, saw from the stars that they were getting close to the other side of the desert. He had also overeaten, so he dozed off to sleep. Then the bullocks who, of course, couldn't tell directions by reading the stars, gradually turned to the side and went in a big wide circle until they ended up at the same place they had started from!

By then it was morning, and the people realized they were back at the same spot they'd camped at the day before. They lost heart and began to cry about their condition. Since the desert crossing was supposed to be over by now, they had no more water and were afraid they would die of thirst. They even began to blame the caravan leader and the desert guide - "We can do nothing without water!", they complained.

Then the tradesman thought to himself, "If I lose courage now, in the middle of this disastrous situation, my leadership has no meaning. If I fall to weeping and regretting this misfortune, and do nothing, all these goods and bullocks and even the lives of the people, including myself, may be lost. I must be energetic and face the situation!" So he began walking back and forth, trying to think out a plan to save them all.

Remaining alert, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a small clump of grass. He thought, "Without water, no plant could live in this desert." So he called over the most energetic of his fellow travelers and asked them to dig up the ground on that very spot. They dug and dug, and after a while they got down to a large stone. Seeing it they stopped, and began to blame the leader again, saying "This effort is useless. We're just wasting our time!" But the tradesman replied, "No no, my friends, if we give up the effort we will all be ruined and our poor animals it will die - let us be encouraged!"

As he said this, he got down into the hole, put his ear to the stone, and heard the sound of flowing water. Immediately, he called over a boy who had been digging and said, "If you give up, we will all perish - so take this heavy hammer and strike the rock."

The boy lifted the hammer over his head and hit the rock as hard as he could - and he himself was the most surprised when the rock spilt in two and a mighty flow of water gushed out from under it! Suddenly, all the people were overjoyed. They drank and bathed and washed the animals and cooked their food and ate. Before they left, they raised a high banner so that other travelers could see it from afar and come to the new spring in the middle of the hot-sand desert. Then they continued on safely to the end of their journey.

“Don’t give up too easily - keep on trying until you reach the goal."

Every obstacle presents an opportunity

Every obstacle presents an opportunity

In ancient times, a king had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it.

Many loudly blamed the king for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the big stone out of the way. Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. On approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded.

As the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the king indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many others never understand.

Lesson: Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve one's condition.

The Champion's Edge

The Champion's Edge

The champion’s edge is not in a gifted birth; a high Intelligent Quotient (IQ) or in talent. The champion’s edge is all in the ATTITUDE (how you do what you do); not aptitude.

How you do what you do determines the quality of the results you get in your life.

It is what you do after you’ve done what you are expected to do, that will make you a CHAMPION.

It is what you learn after you’ve learnt what you are expected to learn that will make you a GENIUS.

It is how many people you help to become successful after you become successful that will make you live a life of SIGNIFICANCE.

It is the EXTRA that you do after doing the ordinary, that will make you to become EXTRA-ORDINARY.

Make a conscious effort to do less of complaining

Make a conscious effort to do less of complaining

Many of us want to either impress others with our busyness or difficult life, or we are seeking sympathy. Rarely will you hear either spouse say to each other after a long day at work,” I had a terrific day. Lots of things went right.” The fear is that to do so (even if it were true) might be seen as a weakness – as if your life were too easy.

I know for a fact that some men complain to their wives about how difficult their workday is, in part, because they don’t want to be expected to do too much once they get home!

In addition, most of us want to be appreciated and respected for how hard we work. By sharing all that went right during the day, the fear is that we might lose some of that appreciation or respect, and be taken for granted.

But more than all of that, focusing on the negative is just a bad habit – plain and simple. Complaining is contagious, and everyone seems to do it. So, unless you make a conscious effort to do less of it, you’re probably going to continue for as long as you are working.

If you began focusing more on the best parts of your day, you will become increasingly aware that there are all sorts of interesting and enjoyable aspects to your day that were virtually invisible to you prior to this shift in focus. You no longer take for granted those stimulating conversations, interesting challenges, personal contact with friends and others. Perhaps most of all, you find that your appreciation has been heightened. Because of this, you find yourself less bothered and annoyed by the hassles that you must deal with on a daily basis.

The Cockroach Theory for self-development: Response Vs Reaction

The Cockroach Theory for self-development: Response Vs Reaction

At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady. She started screaming out of fear. With a panic stricken face and trembling voice, she started jumping, with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach - Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group also got panicky. 

The lady finally managed to push the cockroach away but ...it landed on another lady in the group. Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue the drama. The waiter rushed forward to their rescue. 

In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter. The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behavior of the cockroach on his shirt. When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant. 

Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, the antenna of my mind picked up a few thoughts and started wondering, 

Was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behavior? If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed? He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos. 

It is not the cockroach, but the inability of those ladies to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach that disturbed the ladies. 

I realized that, it is not the shouting of my father or my boss or any other that disturbs me, 
but its my inability to handle the disturbances caused by their shouting that disturbs me. 
Its not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs me, but my inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that disturbs me. More than the problem, its my reaction to the problem that creates chaos in my life. 

Lessons learnt from the story : 

I understood, I should not react in life, I should always respond. The women reacted, whereas the waiter responded. Reactions are always instinctive whereas responses are always well thought of, just and right to save a situation from going out of hands, to avoid cracks in relationship, to avoid taking decisions in anger, anxiety, stress or hurry. 

* How practical would the relevance of this be in a corporate setting? 
* How often do we react rather than respond to a problem at work? 
* Would you prefer to react before responding or respond before reacting? 

Think about it.

Remembering to appreciate

Remembering to appreciate
One of the most consistent complaints of working people in virtually all industries is that either feel completely unappreciated, or at the very least under-appreciated. There seems to be unspoken assumption that workers are lucky to have jobs – and the fact that they have jobs is appreciation enough.

The problem is, people need and deserve to feel appreciated. People who feel appreciated are happier, less-stressed, and more loyal than those who feel taken for granted. Overall, they are harder workers and are excellent team players. They quit less often, show up on time, get along with others, exhibit abundant creativity, and strive for excellence.

Conversely, people who are (or even feel) unappreciated often feel resentful and lose their enthusiasm for their work. They can become apathetic and lazy. They are easily bothered, and certainly are no fun to be around or work with.

The more committed I have become to remembering to appreciate those I work with, the better I have felt about myself. And as an added bonus, those I work with seem to appreciate me much more than ever. In this insistence, it really does seem that what goes around comes around.

By remembering appreciate the people you work with, your relationships will be enhanced and, as importantly, you’ll be actively making everyone’s day a little brighter – including your own. 

Criticism is something all of us must face

Criticism is something all of us must face

The truth is, critics are a fact of life, and criticism is something all of us must face. In fact, the only way to avoid criticism is to live an isolated life where people aren’t exposed to your work, personality, or behavior. Sometimes the criticism we receive is valuable, even helpful.

If you think about it, a landslide political victory would be one where the winner received 60 percent of the vote. That means that even in a convincing win, 40 percent of the people will be wishing the winner had lost!

Realizing this somewhat startling statistics has helped me to keep the criticism directed at me in its proper perspective. No one is important enough, good enough to escape their share of criticism.

I asked an extremely calm person as to how he handles bad reviews and criticism. He told me, “I always try to see if there is grain of truth in what is being said. Quite honestly, there often is. In these instances, I try to learn what I can, and then let go of it. Very often my greatest growth comes directly after a dose of criticism. The worst thing to do is take it personally and become defensive.”

No matter how hard any of us try, no matter how positive our intentions, there will always be someone there to criticize us.

Welcome to the human race when you make the decision to stop fearing your critics. Then your ego and self-image won’t be hurt any more, and your life will seem a great deal less stressful.